The Mallorean, Vol. 1: (Books 1-3) - Guardians of the West, King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda
David Eddings
Del Rey
Paperback
816 pages
August 2005

Like millions of other people, I read this series when it first came out; it was a delicious torment waiting for
each subsequent volume. This is the sequel series to The Belgariad; Garion is the King of Riva, Ce'Nedra his queen. Belgarion begins a new adventure when his son is kidnapped by an evil sorcerer named Zandramas. He is joined by Belgareth, his aunt Poledra, Goodman Durnik, and various other friends, including the hunchback, Beldin.

Eddings' sly humor is always a delight and is liberally sprinkled through these adventure. At times his plot devices can be repetitious, but I found that rather comforting. Eddings' world has moments of chaos, certainly. Still, order prevails in the end. His writing is much better in this series, and he admits some of the constrictions placed on The Belgariad had been loosened by the time Del Rey published this set of books.

It's an old-fashioned good-versus-evil tale, a collection I'd recommend to anyone who is interested in this genre. The only disadvantage to buying the first three books in one volume is that dubious pleasure/pain of anticipation of biting your fingernails waiting for the next installment.